CAIRO (Reuters) - A 25-year-old Egyptian woman has died of
bird flu, Egypt's Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

It is the first human death in Egypt from the virus since
June and the 16th since the disease arrived in early 2006.

The ministry named the woman as Ola Younis from Beni Haroun
village in Beni Suef province, south of Cairo.

She entered Beni Suef hospital on December 21 with a high
temperature and breathing problems, was diagnosed on Tuesday
and died the same day, it said in a statement.

ADVERTISEMENT

Younis had been in contact with birds thought to be
infected with bird flu, the ministry said. The state news
agency MENA said health officials were checking her relatives
to see whether they showed traces of the virus.

The H5N1 virus which causes bird flu tends to lie dormant
during the summer and Egyptian officials had hoped that after
two years of outbreaks it would not re-occur this winter.

The case brings the total among humans in Egypt to 39.

The death toll is the highest for any country outside Asia
and could reflect the high population density in agricultural
parts of Egypt.